Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Crime Fiction

One Sunday morning, the outspoken speaker of the House of Commons steps out of his front door only to be crushed under a mountain of citrus fruit. Bizarre accident or something more sinister? The government needs to know because here's a man whose knowledge of parliament’s biggest secret could put the future of the government at stake. It should be the perfect case for Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit, but unfortunately one detective is in hospital, the other is missing and the staff have all been dismissed.

A young girl has been found in a deserted cemetery. She speaks a foreign language, and she cries for her mother. But nobody claims her. Nobody knows who she is. On the streets of Cork, beggars are being horrifically murdered. But why would anyone want to kill the city's homeless? It's up to DS Katie Maguire to find out. Katie's fiancé is fighting his own battle: against illegal puppy farming, a lucrative black market run by Ireland's most fearsome gangs. When the investigations collide, who will Katie save first?

Meredith and Markby are almost ready to leave on a long planned canal barge trip, but Meredith is having reservations. Then the 12-year-old corpse of a missing teenage girl is dug up in the local graveyard. The vacation is off (to Meredith's relief), but the investigation is on.

The latest crime thriller from best-selling author Kerry Barnes.

Thirty days off-grid. No contact with the outside world. No way to call for help. Zara leaves home to take part in a challenge sweeping the nation–no technology for one month. A body is found in the woods. Right by the Safe House where Zara was meant to check in. And she hasn’t checked in.

When Meredith Mitchell's old friend, Toby Smythe, turns up on leave, she is delighted to see him. But Toby has a problem - or rather his relative, Alison Jenner, has - and he wants to enlist the help of Meredith's fiancé, Detective Superintendent Alan Markby.

Robert Finlay is looking forward to returning to uniform policing and a less stressful life. But fate has other plans. Finlay's traumatic past is about to return to haunt him. A policeman is killed by a bomb blast, and a second is gunned down; both were former army colleagues from Finlay's own SAS regiment. And so begins a game of cat and mouse, a wicked game in which Finlay is in embroiled in a fight against a determined and unidentified enemy.

The highly-anticipated seventh title in the thrilling Dr Alex Gregory series.

When a young girl is snatched from a West Yorkshire town, there are eerie similarities with a cold case from many years earlier. It can't be the same killer, can it?

After the worst year of her life, Martha Munro is looking forward to getting back to the job she loves. She's one of the best and brightest young detectives in the Met, but she's immediately put on a seemingly pointless case . . . Martha is ordered to investigate a spate of cat abductions in leafy south London. Each time, the missing moggy turns up unharmed days later. But then one family receives a terrifying message: Next time it's the kids.

Through world wars and civil strife, the Bangor Express has never missed an issue, but now it is losing money, and Rob Cullen has absolutely no idea that he's the man to save it. It's been a long time since Rob had a real story to get his teeth into...just as well then that he can rely on the Express crew to back him up. They're like a family. A dysfunctional, highly unpopular and poverty-stricken family.

The state suspects David Marquette's insanity defence is being fabricated to disguise murders that were cold blooded and calculated. Worse, it believes Marquette may be a suspect in a string of unsolved homicides. The trial will take young prosecutor Julia Valenciano on a personal journey back to a past she has struggled to forget. And it will bring her face to face with a future that is too frightening to face.

It is not long before they learn that the friary in which they are staying is not the safe haven they imagine - one guest has already been murdered. It soon emerges that the dead man was holding the Hugh Chalice, a Lincoln relic with a curiously bloody history. Bartholomew and Michael are soon drawn into a web of murder, lies and suspicion in a city where neither knows who can be trusted.

Where Old Bones Lie is set on an isolated archaeological dig in the Cotswolds. When a body is found near the site, the suspects, witnesses, and clues all conflict, and the disappearance of a group of New Age travellers just seems to add to the mystery. Superintendent Markby and Meredith Mitchell must untangle the mess, and in doing so find themselves in a dangerous and uncompromising situation.

Three times Detective Chief Inspector Pascoe has wrongly accused dead-pan joker Franny Roote. This time he's determined to leave no gravestone unturned as he tries to prove that the ex-con and aspiring academic is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. But over his investigation looms the huge form of Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel.

The year is 1969, and 10 guests are about to enjoy a weekend at Tavistock Hall. The guests also include detectives Arthur Bryant and John May - undercover, in disguise and tasked with protecting Monty Hatton-Jones, a whistle-blower turning Queen’s evidence in a massive bribery trial. The house’s owner - a penniless, dope-smoking aristocrat - is intent on selling the estate to a secretive millionaire, but the weekend has only just started when the millionaire goes missing, and murder is on the cards....

Like father like son....But heredity seems to have gone a gene too far when Pal Maciver's suicide in a locked room exactly mirrors that of his father 10 years earlier. In each case, accusing fingers point towards Pal's stepmother, the beautiful, enigmatic Kay Kafka. But she turns out to have a formidable champion: Mid-Yorkshire's own super-heavyweight, Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel.

From Chris Brookmyre, winner of the Theakstons and McIllvanney awards for Black Widow, comes a standalone psychological thriller full of twists, lies and betrayal. One family, two holidays, one devastating secret. To new nanny Amanda, the Temple family seem to have it all: the former actress; the famous professor; their three successful grown-up children. But like any family, beneath the smiles and hugs there lurks far darker emotions. Sixteen years earlier, little Niamh Temple died while they were on holiday in Portugal.

Ninety-one-year-old Alice Hoffman died alone in her top floor flat. Social services say she slipped through the cracks in a failing system. But detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have their suspicions. Mrs. Hoffman was not as innocent as she appeared. A former government security expert, she had once worked for their own unit, but there's no one left who can remember her. When they uncover a link between her and a diplomat desperate to leave the country, it begins to look as if someone might have committed an impossible murder.

The first in an Italian crime series set in Rome. Whilst Sara Farnese pours over ancient texts in the silent and beautiful Vatican reading room, a crazed man enters carrying a bloodied bag. He walks up to Sara's desk. He has something he would like her to see. Sara is inextricably linked to a series of horrific murders, each one representative of the death of a martyr of the Church. Enter Detectives Costa and Rossi. They must protect Sara whilst hunting down the killer, and time is running short.